Harvest to Shutter South Street Store in Mid-April

Harvest Coop announced Tuesday it would close its 57 South St. grocery store, saying the “trajectory of the business model has become unsustainable.”

The announcement — not unexpected in many quarters — comes one week after members of the coop packed a board meeting to talk about the possible closure.

At that meeting, held Jan. 5, only members of the coop were allowed in to the tiny Forest Hills Street room where the meeting was held. As resident Kendra Nordin previously reported, the meeting was held in two shifts to accommodate all 60 people who showed up.

Chris Helms

The patio outside the Harvest Coop on South Street

The store’s lease was set to expire Feb. 28. A deal with landlord Dean Rusk extends the lease to April 30.

Last Tuesday, Lila Givens and the grocery chain’s board of directors announced they’d come to a decision. But that decision — to shutter the store — wasn’t announced until Tuesday.

Harvest opened a second JP location near Forest Hills Station. The stores are .7 miles apart. That’s a walk of roughly 15 minutes.

The coop’s board said South Street has been operating at a loss for the past three fiscal years.

“From its peak in 2009, sales in South Street have declined 32 percent through the most recent fiscal year and over 6 percent currently year to date,” they said in a statement on the Harvest website. ‘Costs for rent, payroll, maintenance, repairs, utilities and other services have continued to increase.”

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JP Local First, a network of local and independently owned businesses, is promoting “Buy Local” by offering a $1,000 shopping spree to people who snap and post a selfie at a JP Local First member business. “JP Local First has 170 member businesses in Jamaica Plain and surrounding neighborhoods,” said Steering Committee member David Warner.

Longtime Jamaica Plain resident Andrew Haines contacted the Arnold Arboretum to see if they had an art exhibition planned to capture the changing Forest Hills area. They liked the idea so much they invited Haines to create his own exhibit.

Perhaps no commercial vacancy in the last few years has prompted as much speculation on what should go there next as 57 South St., former home of Harvest Coop. Landlord Dean Rusk is marketing the property as a "retail/restaurant" opportunity, according to a poster in the window.

From groceries to little kids: the old Harvest Co-Op building on South Street will be empty no more come September. Joana Araujo, director of the Pine Village Preschool, confirmed to Jamaica Plain News that the school will be moving its classrooms at the First Baptist Church (633 Centre St.) to a roomier space at the former Harvest Co-Op location at 57 South St.

Considering that there aren’t many grocery options on the south end of JP, it’s too bad that the Coop didn’t have the business acumen to make this location work.

eddie

The new one is nice and clean. This location is pretty nasty. Good decision.

Peppy

I have a problem believing that closing the South St. location wasn’t the plan from the beginning. They open a new modern (hopefully clean) store with parking a mile away and anyone is surprised the dirty old location suddenly can’t make a go of it? Give me a break.

Ben

I turned in my membership and stopped shopping here because the prices are 2-3x what they are at my local neighborhood grocer, America’s Food Basket in Dorchester, for higher quality organic produce. They are frequently out of stock on common items like Stonyfield yogurt or organic bananas. When the bananas are in stock they are not ripe and do not ripen. The store is a mess. Why pay for a membership to a place that is consistently out of stock and messy? That’s what’s killed this location.